I’ve been across a lot of forums and comment sections that talk about 4K being the future, followed by 8K after that when it comes to monitor technology. However, if you do the math for what pixels the human eye can actually see, 1440p is all anyone should ever need. Why is 4K so much better then? The answer lies in what colors the pixels can actually reproduce. Because of this, more pixels end up looking better color wise once they’re grouped up, even though the human eye can’t discern the individual pixels at a normal viewing distance. The patches of color start showing more variance at higher resolutions, tricking us into thinking it’s the higher resolution itself that’s better. AMD stated at CES, earlier this year, that we need better pixels. While the human eye may not work well compared to the magnifying focus of an eagle eye, what it can see as far as the range of colors is concerned is pretty amazing. If pixels aren’t reproducing colors to the extent that the human eye can see them, shades blur together making images look flat, rather than vibrant and varied. This is where High Dynamic Range (HDR) comes into play. HDR can almost reproduce all the colors the human eye can see on an individual pixel basis. This means that a 1080p monitor can actually look better than a 4K that isn’t using HDR. Some of you may be reading this and thinking that it sounds good on paper, but that doesn’t mean it will actually translate to ...

Introduction I have no way to describe just how many mouse and keyboard options there are in the world today. I’m not talking about all of them either. I’m just talking about “gaming” mice and keyboards. The options have gone through the roof and all you have to do is try a quick Amazon search and you’ll have enough mice to send the black death sweeping through Europe again! Needless to say, the eSports phenomenon has had a huge part in bringing many a design from many a company. Today, we’re going to look at a new company for PureOC by reviewing a mouse and keyboard from SteelSeries. Do they have what it takes to stand out? We’ll dive into that further, but I can say that their social media presence and website appearance are already off to a good start. Let’s look at a quick word from their site so we can get a feel for what motivates their product designs. WE ARE GAMING SteelSeries has fueled the gaming industry by creating innovative new products, designed specifically for eSports and passionate gamers everywhere. RELENTLESS INNOVATION Here at SteelSeries, we are obsessed with “firsts”. Dating back to 2001, our company was formed to meet the surface needs of hardcore gamers by introducing the first glass mousepad, the Icemat. Since that original innovation, we created the first mechanical gaming keyboard, the first suspended headband for gaming headsets, the first World of Warcraft mouse and endless other innovation...

Hey everyone! The Hardware Hound is back with a little more “Hound” Advice. RAIDs can be very impractical for normal everyday use, but that doesn’t stop some of us from wanting one anyways. However, if you deal with very large files, then RAIDs can be a mainstay of your builds to help increase performance or add redundancy to your data. Check out the video below to see how to set up a RAID that can also take advantage the UEFI boot for Windows. As always, let us know in the comments below, or in the forums, if there’s something you’d like to see some sound advice on and keep checking out PureOC for your hardware news and reviews!

BIOSTAR Equips Gamers for VR Gaming Experience with GeForce GTX 1080 Graphics Card Experience Virtual Reality and Ultra High-Definition Games with the latest BIOSTAR Graphics Card July 19, 2016, Taipei, Taiwan – BIOSTAR is proud to announce its latest graphics card, the BIOSTAR GeForce GTX 1080. Designed for the latest generation of games and gaming experiences, the GeForce GTX 1080 takes gaming to the next level with performance and efficiency that beats everything before it featuring the all-new Pascal GPU architecture fabricatedon the 16nm FinFET process technology. The BIOSTAR GeForce GTX 1080 will have an MSRP of USD799. The BIOSTAR GeForce GTX 1080 features the GP104 GPU sporting 2560 CUDA cores and runs with a base core clock of 1607Mhz. Featuring GPU Boost 3.0, the BIOSTAR GeForce GTX 1080 can run up to 1733Mhz and features 8GB of GDDR5X video memory connected a 256-bit bus interface. The BIOSTAR GeForce GTX 1080 is intended for use for today’s demanding graphics application including next-generation virtual-reality experiences. With thrice the performance of last-generation’s graphics cards, the new GTX 1080 makes gaming in ultra high-definition a much more fluid experience. The card features NVIDIA’s gamer-inspired cooler intended to keep the card running at optimal temperatures while keeping noise levels to a minimum. The GTX 1080 has a rated TDP of only 180W while still delivering three times the performance of previous graphics card from earlier g...

QNAP Releases Upgraded Qsirch 2.2, Enabling More Accurate and Effective NAS File Search Taipei, Taiwan, July 20, 2016 – QNAP® Systems, Inc. today released the upgraded Qsirch 2.2 that adds the following features: personalized filters for improved search accuracy, enhanced email search for efficient management of stored emails, and document previewing for a better browsing experience. Qsirch is an exclusive search engine developed by QNAP. It supports over 6,000 file types to assist users in finding specific files stored on QNAP NAS within seconds. “To complement QNAP NAS as a huge data center, ‘searchability’ is one of the key areas for increasing the value of stored data, and Qsirch is the best tool to realize optimized search capabilities for vast data storage and archiving,” said Cherry Chen, Product Manager of QNAP. The personalized filters in Qsirch 2.2 help to locate files with greater accuracy. Users can flexibly choose search criteria for different file types. For example, photos can be filtered by camera model, resolution, or focal length; music by artist or album name; documents by creator, and more. Qsirch 2.2 also provides a powerful email search. Users can customize search criteria (such as date, carbon copy, sender, and receiver) to efficiently search through .eml files and find specific emails stored on the NAS. Using Qsirch with QNAP’s email apps can make searching through and managing massive amounts of emails much easier. In addition to multi...

AccelStor Debuting NeoSapphire 3706-ES1 at Flash Memory Summit 2016 Featuring Uncompromised Performance and High Availability. Also Demonstrating NVMe-Based All-Flash Array. July 20, 2016, Taipei, Taiwan – AccelStor, the software-defined all-flash array provider, will be demonstrating the new NeoSapphire 3706-ES1 all-flash array at the Flash Memory Summit 2016. The NeoSapphire 3706-ES1 is officially launched today and this high-availability all-flash array model provides sustained 360K IOPS for 4KB random writes, with standard iSCSI over 10GbE connections, and its shared-nothing architecture ensures no single point of failure and avoid downtime. In addition, AccelStor will showcase FlexiRemap technology on a new NVMe array platform at the event. AccelStor’s all-flash array products and technology will be on display at Booth #132, in Hall A of the Santa Clara Convention Center, in Santa Clara, California, USA, from August 9 to 11, 2016. AccelStor Vice President, Dr. Weafon Tsao, who will be giving a presentation at the Flash Memory Summit, said, “It’s time for our industry to put to finally rest the outdated idea that flash arrays can offer either performance or reliability, but not both. At AccelStor, our arrays are designed from the ground up for flash, and our software-defined approach gives us the flexibility to respond swiftly to changing market demands, and extract the full potential from the best hardware. That’s how we’re able to provide high-availabilit...

Introduction If you swap out computer parts as much as I do, you learn to appreciate a tech station. The convenience of an open air test bench is brilliant. Highspeed PC is the true original of PC workbenches and for over a decade, they have been giving hardcore geeks easy access to their hardware. I will be building a XL-ATX Top Deck Station and showing how beneficial an open air test bench can be. The XL series is the best all-around PC test bench Highspeed PC offers and is highly customizable. Lets take a closer look at these claims, and see how an open air test bench can benefit you. The XL tech station features: The Top Deck brings the motherboard to the top level for easy access. 10 Add-in card expansion slots! Perfect for your 4-Way SLI/Crossfire motherboard. Neoprene on the lower deck makes for a great removable static-free work mat and non-slip storage for your optical drives, PSU, etc. Convenient, easy access storage of hard drives in a slide-in rail system under the upper deck. Choose between 3.5″ or 2.5″ HDD during assembly. Swap anytime! Or add a second set of Drive Rails in the options above. Each set holds either two 3.5″ or three 2.5″ drives. 120mm cooling fan pushes air over both motherboard and hard drives, while two more are dedicated to video card cooling. Add-in card support brace keeps cards firmly planted. 10 Nylon thumbscrews included. Rubberized feet, and solid heavy duty bench materials keep the bench right where you want...

Let me start by saying that I cover A LOT of AMD news. This is mostly because when I built my latest system in 2012, I ended up with the 8350 CPU due to the purpose and budget I had at the time. Don’t get me wrong, I would LOVE to get my hands on Skylake, but we all have to live with what have at the time. As it is, I’ve become very familiar with the 990FX chipset and the various motherboards. At this point, if you told me there would be ANOTHER 990FX motherboard, I would have told you I also have some ocean front property in north western Colorado for sale at an excellent price! However, ASUS is certainly releasing a new motherboard, it supports 220W CPUs, and at this point, one has to wonder why they would be releasing a board like this with Zen just around the corner. The Sabertooth R3.0 doesn’t just support 220W CPUs. It’s packed to the brim with awesome features that I can personally say I’ve never seen to this degree. ASUS has maintained the reputation of being the top overclocking board for FX chips since the Crosshair V Formula-Z and nobody has quite been able to take their crown. With this new board, we have the same power capability, but looks to be updated with not only better MOSFETs and chokes, but the option to install a 40mm fan blowing right on the VRM heatsink. Anybody who’s played with AMD knows how useful that is. The Sabertooth also doesn’t sacrifice expand-ability with added features. We still have a good ra...

Introduction It’s been a long wait for the day that I would get to review my first graphics card. Well, the wait is over and we’ll be looking at the SAPPHIRE Nitro R7 370 . With the RX 480’s release, as well as the 470 and 460 looming on the horizon, the 370 isn’t going to be relevant much longer. Still, the card can be a great budget option for many games and the best part is getting to see how well SAPPHIRE does with their version of it. SAPPHIRE is a company I’ve always enjoyed following. My first card from them was a Radeon X1950 Pro, many years ago. Over time, the card has upgraded to a Vapor-X variant of the R9 290, but my experience with them has been really good throughout. SAPPHIRE recently started using the Nitro branding on many of their cards and it looks like the trend is going to continue with one of the RX 480 releases. By now, it’s pretty easy to see how well the R7 370 performs through some quick Google searches, but this a great opportunity to see how well SAPPHIRE does with their thermal and acoustic performance. We’ll dive right in, but first let’s see SAPPHIRE’s approach to introducing technology to us. SAPPHIRE Technology has long been established as a leading manufacturer and world-wide supplier of graphics products for the PC sector. Its AMD Radeon™ based products are just as well known in the mainstream PC markets as they are to the gaming and performance graphics enthusiast. Now SAPPHIRE has ...

Wow! The RX 480 release has been wrapped up in more drama than a few seasons of Jersey Shore!!! Sure, that statement could be an over exaggeration considering I’ve never seen Jersey Shore, but the drama is real enough, that’s for sure. To be clear, my complaint is not directed at writers on other sites. I know of a slight disagreement between PCPer and Tom’s Hardware, but the issue was resolved almost immediately and professionally. With the power issue being fixed today, I want to discuss the good, the not so bad, and the downright ugly angles behind the RX 480 release. I’m still incredibly excited about how good the new releases are for graphics cards this year. In the case of AMD’s RX 480, I feel like AMD is doing a great job of meeting the appropriate expectations. When Maxwell hit the scene, the R9 300 series was almost laughable in comparison. To the series benefit, it was in a great price-to-performance bracket, but the bars set in overclocking and power efficiency were way above what was being hit by the more budget friendly option. Now, we have a card that is much, much closer to those standards with the RX 480. The reference design isn’t as strong in overclocking, but the AIB partners are sure to fix that in the coming weeks. While this can make the choice a bit harder between Red and Green, I don’t feel like builders will actually feel like they had to compromise in any area if they choose AMD, which is great! Now, it&...

Introduction Everyone may be waiting for Zen, but that doesn’t mean AMD doesn’t have a few more releases up their sleeves before the end of the year. The Athlon X4 845 is the latest budget minded chip to help pass the time until their new architecture arrives. What’s nice about the 845 is the fact that it uses the latest Excavator cores instead of the Steamroller ones. AMD designed the Carrizo architecture to put an emphasis on power efficiency, but ever since the backlash from Zambezi, single-thread performance is one of the first things people look for with new releases. We’ll certainly check that out but there’s something else that really needs to be pointed out in AMD’s new design choices. The stock cooler is the bane of CPU existence. They’re SOOO bad! With all that noise, inefficient cooling, as well as cheap designs, many feel like their hard earned dollars are slightly wasted with such skimpy designs. AMD is trying to change that by redesigning all of their stock coolers. Pure Overclock already got to check out the Wraith cooler and it was a hit. Now, we’ll get to also see how AMD’s lowest budget cooler performs as well. If Zen manages to complete the direction AMD is on, there is no doubt they will start changing the market in good ways. We’ll see how the Athlon X4 845 measures up, but before we do that, let’s take a quick word from team Red themselves. At AMD, we live our core values through our ac...

G.SKILL Announces a Major Software Update for the RIPJAWS KM780 RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard Taipei, Taiwan (1 July 2016) – G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world’s leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, is releasing a major software update for the RIPJAWS KM780/KM780R RGB series mechanical gaming keyboards that focuses on packing even more color customization options to each individual key! In the SW0.104/FW57 update, the software color palette is now expanded with the ability to personalize the full range of 16.8 million RGB colors and your own customized layout of color lighting can be shared with your friends by simply exporting, sharing, and importing the keyboard profile. Next, the responsive lighting effects (Ripple and Reactive) can now enable a second layer of customizable background per-key lighting. Other changes include the expansion of individual RGB customization to the top row of special function keys and media keys, which can be unlocked by simply upgrading the firmware to the latest version; the increase of key brightness to 5 levels (up from 4); and various optimizations to the lighting effects that improve on smoother color transitions. The software for gaming peripherals is constantly being updated. For the latest software update, please visit the G.SKILL website at http://gskill.com/en/download/view/ripjaws-km780-km780r-rgb—mechanical-gaming-keyboard About G.SKILL Established in 1989 by ...